At fly-fishing destination Penns Creek, trophy trout, natural beauty, and lots of bugs

Past the feed mill. Past the old railroad sign. Past the spot where the macadam road turns to gravel and satellite radio fades out for good. The road ends in a turnaround. 

It's a spot where the gravel meets an old railroad bridge and abandoned railroad tunnel. On this day, three Amish buggies are parked alongside the cars of fishermen, the Amish horses tied down under the shade of the trees.  

The three Amish couples have come here for a cookout. The fishermen come for another reason entirely. For both, it's a getaway, a paradise hidden away on Pennsylvania's back roads. 

Fly fishermen still use the abandoned bridge to cross Penns Creek. A piece of cork-like material has been placed near the bridge entrance. It's a Flybrary, a place where fisherman can pin one of their flies. Need a fly, take a fly. The sign says: "Have one? leave one."  

It serves as a guidepost, just in case anyone had not heard: Penns Creek is a fly fishing destination. 

Earlier in the day, the owner of a fly shop had offered a warning before rattling off some driving directions. 

"You're not going to have cell service," Jonas Price said. "Wait, that might be a good thing." 

Price has all the scouting reports fishermen need. He has owned this fly shop and bed and breakfast, The Feathered Hook, in tiny Coburn, Pennsylvania, since 1997. He knows what the trout are eating and where. He directs fishermen on how they can fish a nymph pattern against the current. He tells stories that cause his customers to double-over in laughter. He has a trout tattooed on his forearm. 

He can go into detail about the life cycle of the Eastern Green Drake and other bugs, but he stops himself when he gets too specific, mentioning the subimago of an insect. 

He shakes his head and frowns: "Trout don't speak Latin."

He's the type of guy an absolute stranger can trust to find a good spot to enjoy a great day on the stream. 

Feeding frenzy for trout

Coburn is home to a little more than 200 people. Located about 25 miles from State College in Centre County, the place is off the beaten path.

Hang a right off Route 322, and then hang another another right, and the road eventually transforms into a weaving, twisting pass just wide enough for oncoming traffic to pass. Sometimes that's a car. Other times it's an Amish buggy. 

Price found the shop for sale on the internet and moved across the country from Idaho to call the place home more than 20 years ago. He admits he had some reservations about moving to Coburn — until one spring night.

He recalled that spring night when he marveled at the sheer number of bugs swarming under a town streetlight. 

A nuisance to most, those six-legged critters help feed the trophy brown trout teeming in Penns Creek, located just out of casting distance from the front porch stoop of The Feathered Hook.

When a particular type of mayfly hatches, it sets off a feeding frenzy for trout. The Eastern Green Drake transforms from underwater nymph into winged insects on the surface of the water usually in late May. Trout chomp down on the flies. And at night, the feeding only intensifies. The mayflies mate above the stream near dusk, shortly before their death. The females, the larger of the two genders, will lay eggs in the water before dying and typically fall into the water. 

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Fishermen try to tempt trout during this spinner stage of the fly with something they call a coffin fly. 

"Green Drake fishing 101 ... what times does that hatch happen?" Price said. "Later than we all want it to."

Price points out it's not uncommon for fishermen to chase the Green Drake as day turns to night. Fishermen switch to oversized coffin flies at night, casting no more than 10 or 15 feet away. Instead of fishing by sight, fishermen cast by sound — directing a cast in the dark toward the sound of a trout rising to eat a coffin fly at the surface. And because the food is so plentiful, trout abandon their typical skittish behavior. Cars of fishermen will line the dirt road in Coburn hoping experience it. 

"You'll see those fish are not afraid of you, they are literally rising right in between your legs," Price said, "which is a difficult cast."

'It's just beautiful up here'

The remote location of Penns Creak might have helped preserve it. People haven't ruined it. It's still wild. Its waters still run clear when spring rainfall subsides. Tadpoles wiggle in the pools along the creek, and a quick stroll down the dirt footpaths reveal a dozen or more frogs croaking out background music. 

"The fishing is fantastic here all spring long, and really all summer and fall," Price said. 

But the annual hatch of the Eastern Green Drake, a large mayfly, in May and early June draws the biggest crowds — and world travelers. Price has housed people from Europe, Asia and Australia.

Each of them chasing their next fishing adventure.

Penns Creek is carved out of limestone running through rural Pennsylvania farmland and woods, creating a fishing paradise. The limestone The creek has spots that the locals refer to by unofficial names like Stan's Bridge or the Crazy House, where any one day of fishing could result in something special. 

There was the time Red Lion's George Migash caught seven trout in seven casts. 

Or the one Labor Day when his son, Steve Migash, struggled to land a fish no matter what fly he tossed in the creek. Near dusk he finally found out. He drifted a midge imitation on a tiny size 22 hook in the water. Fastened to the end of his line with 7x tippet, a strand of line about the width of a human hair, it was just what a trophy trout wanted to see. Migash landed a 20-inch brown trout that day. 

"It was off the charts," he said laughing at the memory of it. 

The father and son have been coming to a family cabin in Centre County for most of their lives. It's about a two-hour drive from the family's home, but the setting keeps pulling them back. 

"It just so happened the cabin was right by Penns Creek, which is world-renowned," Steve Migash said. "I happened to be in the right place and didn't realize I should have been fly fishing all this time until about 15 years ago."

George Migash, who is now in his 80s, shakes his head when asked about Penns. 

He knows the creek is one of the best around for fly fishing. 

But even someone who has never held a fly rod can find reasons for making the drive to see Penns Creek. 

"Oh, it's just beautiful up here," he said.

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